School of Education Leads National Reforms

The University of San Francisco’s School of Education is at the forefront of President Barack Obama’s higher education reform initiative to better prepare, recruit, and retrain teachers.

The initiative is aimed at urban schools where close to 50 percent of new teachers leave the profession after three years.

Under a three-year $1.4 million
AmeriCorps grant initiative, USF,
the San Francisco Education
Fund, Stanford University, the San
Francisco Unified School District,
and the United Educators of San
Francisco, have created three
teacher academies in “hard to
staff” SFUSD schools.

“Research indicates that more
experienced teachers and more
prepared teachers are more
effective in terms of pupil
achievement, and research also
indicates that urban youth are
the most likely to be taught by
inexperienced and under-prepared
teachers,” said Peter
Williamson, USF assistant
professor of teacher education,
who is leading the USF effort.
“This program aims to solve this
problem by providing people who
are committed to teaching in these
schools with the best preparation
to be successful.”